California Medical Marijuana Laws Strengthened

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed three bills that he believes will put more discipline into the regulation of medical marijuana in the nation’s largest state. California is one of 23 states that has approved the use of medical marijuana.

The Governor said the legislation will put into practice a long overdue regulatory framework for the production, transportation and sale of medical marijuana.

“California can no longer ignore an industry that has operated for nearly 20 years with no testing standards, little enforcement, environmental neglect and no tools to combat drugged driving. Too much is at stake for California to let the medical marijuana industry go on unregulated,” said Assemblymember Rob Bonta, before the Governor signed the bills.

Marijuana has been openly grown, particularly in northern California for the past twenty years, prompting one newspaper to call it the “Wild West” that needed regulation. The legislation had support from the cannabis industry to police to cities and state lawmakers.

The California Police Chiefs Association thinks the legislation is important. “The regulation of medical marijuana in our state will yield positive results for local law enforcement, cities, counties, patients and members of the public,” it said in a statement.

California will consider joining Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington as states that have approved marijuana for recreational use. It’s also been approved in Washington, D.C. The issue is expected to be on the ballot in 2016.

The medical industry is continuing to urge more study into the palliative effects of marijuana which is believed to help chronic pain patients.

“It is long past time that we do more serious scientific research into the medicinal efficacy of marijuana,” Daniel S. Bennett, M.D., CEO of the National Pain Foundation told us recently.

“Anecdotal evidence that marijuana helps in chronic pain conditions has been mounting. The DEA’s monopoly on research supply is hurting science and perhaps by extension, many of the 100 million chronic pain patients in the U.S.”